Princess & Mercenary
by Kaesteranya
Summary: My dumping site for drabbles revolving around Inara and Mal, sometimes gen, sometimes romantic - if you can even call these two 'romantic', that is.
1. The turn of her heel, the nape of her

**The turn of her heel, the nape of her neck.**

_Written as a part of my belated birthday gift to Mia, and to the tune of the prompt "morning alarm". The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 24, 2008._

_

* * *

  
_

Sometimes, when the pressure of being captain to a ship full of strange and often contradictory personalities or when the realization that he's in a tin can full of beleaguered, sometimes stinking mercenaries hits him full in the gut, Mal finds himself looking forward to the rare times that Inara steps out of her pod, to stretch her legs and check up on how everyone was doing. He doesn't really know why it matters to him (or maybe he does and he's in vehement denial of it): it might be the sight of her face (always clean and fine, a jarring difference from Kaley's dirty cheeks or River's blank stare), or the fact that in every shift of her limbs there are a hundred tiny little movements that he cannot hope to track but finds himself trying to anyway, because it fascinates him. She favors light, subtle fragrances; he catches a whiff every time she passes close enough, and even though his sense of smell has been beaten black and blue by a life of sensory overloading, he never fails to recognize it as a new scent, her scent.

They don't really talk when she's out on one of these walks. He's promised himself that he's never going to take a step in her direction, even if it turns out that that happens to be exactly what she wants. He is, at least for the moment, content with their unique sense of awkward, and the unexpected pleasure of having beauty on his ship.


	2. I should tell you, I'm disaster

**I should tell you, I'm disaster.**

_This was written with the prompt "Get your head in the game" in mind, provided by Mia; this is part of my long overdue birthday gift for her. ;_; Oh, also: the title is taken from the 31 Days theme for June 12, 2008._

_

* * *

  
_

Inara has, of course, been on this ship long enough to know that once you set all that bullshit about him having his heart in his right place, Mal is an insufferably slow idiot when it comes to the things that really matter. He can shoot the wings off a fly with his eyes closed, out swear a dump ship driver and drink enough alcohol in a single night to give several hundred lightweights liver poisoning, but he could not, for the life of him, recognize what was good for him even as it's staring him in the face. It took her a while to fully accept this, and after she finally grew tired of being thwarted by his unintended denials (read: he's just that _thick)_, Inara decided that it was time to take matters into her own hands.

Baiting is something that Companions are extremely good at – they've turned it into an art, with so and so many words and a million and one different but ultimately subtle gestures as their tools of trade. One fine day, when Mal barges into her pod in his usual, gruff fashion, Inara keeps these techniques in mind as she politely excuses herself from his tirade about funds and galactic routes and times her disappearance behind a screen at the precise moment when her robe slips, just so, from her shoulders, revealing the nape of her neck. She takes a perverse amount of pleasure in the realization that Mal has stumbled to a stop, but she is a Companion: Companions are in control in any time and any place. So, concealed by the screen, she takes her time in changing her robes, careful of every movement, every sway of her hips.

She steps out after what she has sure was an agonizingly long time for her honorable captain, feigning innocence, willfully oblivious to his discomfort. And when he stammers something about checking this ship's damned engine, she smiles, and tells herself that from here on, it's only a matter of time.


	3. And you honored in blood rite

**And you honored in blood rite.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for December 27, 2008._

_

* * *

  
_

In retrospect, he should have known that it was a bad idea, giving River over into Inara's care while the two of them were having yet another one of their routine arguments. Mal, however, wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to issues like this one, and he was therefore duly punished for it when he came down to check on them and opened the hatch to find them both staring at him.

"Well," said Inara with the brisk sort of professionalism that came with her career, "now that he's here, you can see it for yourself and tell me if I'm right."

River stared at Inara, stared at Mal, stared at Mal's crotch area, and then stared at Inara again. She silently nodded.

"I knew it." Inara let out a little melodramatic sigh. "And I thought he'd be bigger, given the size of his feet."

From then on, Mal made it a point to keep River with the guys instead.


	4. Dear me

**Dear me.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for July 13, 2008._

_

* * *

  
_

"River is a super weapon, Inara," Mal says flatly. "Super weapons do not do pigtails."

And while she doesn't roll her eyes or sigh, Inara has this look on her face that just oozes disappointment and disgust. "You have bad tastes and you should feel bad. I suppose it comes with being a man though."

River, of course, does not contribute anything to the exchange but a pointed stare, one that Mal used to find hell-of-very-fucking-creepy. Now there were times when the man almost thinks it's cute, in a bizarre sort of bug-eyed way.

That isn't the issue at the moment, of course.

"You've gotten her brother's permission for this, I hope."

"I don't think I need to. He'll see her when I'm done."

If he wasn't already worried about charting out their next route or finding a new job or keeping his house in order, Mal might've gotten angry. Now, however, as he watches Inara lace her fingers through the tangles in River's hair and smooth them out, he feels vaguely like a father who has been confronted with the revelation that he actually DOESN'T have as much control over things as he thought he did.

What's even scarier is that somehow, he doesn't really mind.

"Next thing I know," he mutters as he turns away, "you'll be putting make-up on her."

"Why, thank you, Mal!" he can hear the smile in Inara's voice. "That's an excellent idea, I think."

When River steps out later and her brother stares at her in shock, Mal silently declares that if anyone asks, it wasn't his idea. Not his idea at all.


End file.
